It is common for conventional electric or hybrid vehicles to be adapted with components, which require a 120VAC power supply for operation. Such components may include: engine block heater, interior heaters, battery warmers, battery chargers and the like. These commonly require an extension cord to function. Said cord must be rolled out of the vehicle path prior to departing.
The inventor sought to provide vehicle owners with an unobtrusive, thin, easy-to-use electrical-cord winder, which is neatly stored behind the vehicle's front or rear license plate. Furthermore, the inventor also sought to greatly improve safety within the present invention by allowing for the electrical connection to the vehicle to be made in the engine compartment from the front plate, or in the rear compartment from the rear plate thus preventing exposure to the connection from the elements.
The applicant is aware of attempts in prior art to provide means of reeling an extension cord behind a license plate.
An example of prior art may be had when referring to U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,016 of Bales, issued Jul. 24, 2001 depicting a mobile power center with self-retracting cord having a cord spring loaded winding spindle within a large housing, a 12VDC to 120VAC inverter, and extended lips around the front-most perimeter of the housing so as to wrap excess cord therearound and a female AC receptacle on housing for plugging a block heater. However, this invention, like most of this nature will fail when attempting to plug a block heater within the housing at the license plate area since most block heater cords are too short to reach much past the front edge of the vehicle's hood. Furthermore, at a typical diameter of 5.5 inches, which is the standard height of a license plate, can only hold a limited length of standard round extension cord material thereby limiting said cord to an impractical length. Additionally, there are no means to stabilize the housing when mounted since the unfastened edge would be separable for the license plate mounting bracket.
Another example may be had in referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,471 of Unze, issued Sep. 23, 1997, which teaches of a trailer wire recoil device having a housing containing a rotatable member on which a trailer wire extension may be reeled thereon. The application of the device is clearly limited to trailer wires and therefore impractical for bloc heaters. Again, there are no means to stabilize the housing when mounted since the unfastened edge would be separable for the license plate mounting bracket.
Another example may be had in referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,216 of McNaughton, issued Sep. 8, 1998, which depicts a retractable extension cord holder and receptacle for an automobile having a housing a cord reel, a receptacle and a retractable cord. This invention also limits the length of cord due to restrictive housing measurements while also failing in that the block heater cord from the vehicle, in most cases will not reach the cord winder.